Barbara qualified as a Naval Reserve officer in 1950 but took a summer job selling ice cream at a resort west of Reading, Pennsylvania. The program director, a veteran of WWII, kept coming back for more scoops so he could talk to her. Barb quit the navy to marry Phil on December 22, 1951. The next year he took her west, where they climbed Pike’s Peak and hiked the Grand Canyon, Carlsbad Caverns and Yosemite. Thus began a life of adventure and service for Barb and Phil. She started teaching elementary school while he worked for the YMCA. Soon Barb was raising their young family as Phil got his PhD.
After moving to Crete, Nebraska, Barb was a special education teacher with four children under the age of 10. She hosted multiple dinner parties every week, often at short notice, to support Phil as the President of Doane College. Barb not only did all these things well and with enthusiasm, but she also found time to give to her community, by establishing the V-Co Handicap program, serving on the Foster Care Review Board, as the Foreman of the Grand Jury of Nebraska, and travelling across America to teach other teachers how to teach. She also continued to further her own education. In addition to her teaching degree, Barb had two master’s and an Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts.
Barb loved to travel and experience other cultures. She took her children on a European tour for 3 months in 1972. After she retired, she supported Phil on 12 overseas assignments to places like Russia, Armenia and Bangladesh. In addition, she was a keen golfer, an accomplished quilter, an avid reader (Phil had to visit the library several times a week to make sure she did not run out of books), and a long-term docent at the Sheldon Art Gallery.
Barb is survived by her children Peter, Matthew, Susan and Becky, their spouses Pamela Thompson, Angie Heckman, Geoff Edney and Ron Wendelin, her grandson Daniel Lawler, and step grandchildren Max Edney, Thomas, Kaitlin, Jenna, and Matt Roh.
Memorial service: 2:00 pm Thursday, February 15, 2024, First Plymouth Church, 2000 D Street.
Memorials in lieu of flowers to Sheldon Art Gallery.